Here is a compilation of term papers on the ‘Branches of Management’ for class 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short term papers on the ‘Branches of Management’ especially written for school and college students.
Branches of Management
Term Paper Contents:
- Term Paper on Financial Management
- Term Paper on Marketing Management
- Term Paper on Personnel Management
- Term Paper on Production Management
Term Paper # 1. Financial Management:
Money is the life-blood of any enterprise. Financial Management involves managerial activities concerned procurement and utilisation of funds for business purposes. The finance manager deals with planning, organising, directing and controlling financial activities of the enterprise. Its scope covers all aspects of financing like assessing the capital needs, raising required resources, cost of financing, budgeting, maintaining liquidity, lending and borrowing policies, dividends policy etc.
The functional objectives of finance manager are:
(a) Ensuring regular and sufficient supply of capital to the business.
(b) Ensuring better utilisation of capital by following the principles of liquidity, profitability and safety.
(c) Provision of timely and adequate finance
(d) Providing a fair rate of return to the investors
(e) Co-ordinating the activities of the finance department with those of the other departments of the organisation.
Based on the definition, scope and objectives of financial management the functions performed by the finance manager are:
(i) Fund Requirement Estimation:
(a) They carefully estimate the requirement of capital fund.
(b) They predetermine the purpose of funds and their timing.
(c) They make use of techniques like long range planning and budgetary control.
(d) All these involves forecasting of all physical activities of the organisation and translate them into monetary terms. In essence this involves planning.
(ii) Financing Decisions:
In this function the managers decide about the proper mix of financial resources. This is also called as capital structure function.
(a) This involves procurement of funds both for short and long-term purposes.
(b) Managers decide about capital structure by providing a proper balance between long and short term funds and loan and ownership funds.
(c) Long term funds are needed for acquisition of assets, long-term investments modernisation and rationalisation. Short term funds are needed for working capital purposes. So the financial managers design and decide about capital structure.
(iii) Investment Decisions:
(a) Financial Managers focus on effective utilisation of resources.
(b) They decide about asset management policies both for current and fixed assets.
(c) Dividend Decisions:
The finance managers advise the top management in deciding about declaration of dividend and the amount to be retained in the business out of profits.
(d) The declaration of dividend is determined by various factors like Earning potentials, trend of share market prices, cash flow, Tax position of share-holders, the trend prevails in competing business, requirements of funds for future growth etc.
(iv) Cash Management Decision:
(a) Financial Managers must ensure smooth flow of funds for all sections of organisations at the right time.
(b) There should be no starvation of funds and excessive availability of funds in any part of the organisation.
(c) To weed out this problem. Finance managers are to involve cash transfer policies.
Functions of investment, dividend and cash management concentrate on organising function.
(v) Evaluation of Performance:
(a) The finance manager has to evaluate the financial performance of various units and to see that they set the right tune for effective performance.
(b) They make use of financial analysis techniques for identifying effective utilisation of funds.
(c) Tools of financial analysis made use of by Financial Managers are Ratio analysis, Inter-firm comparison, Cash Flow and Fund flow analysis, Budgetary Control etc.
(d) The Finance Manager is to interact and carry out negotiations with financial institutions like banks, and investing public.
(vi) Market Impact Analysis:
(a) The Finance Manager is to keep in touch with stock exchange quotations and behaviour of share prices. This is done by analysing the trends in the stock market and judging their impact on share prices of the company. The object of this function is to achieve value maximisation.
So in short the Finance Managers actively manage the financial affairs of the business. They perform varied financial tasks like planning and procuring of funds, design and decide the resources, provide adequate funds at the right time in required mix (organising finance) evaluate the performance and utilisation of funds (control function).
Term Paper # 2. Marketing Management:
Marketing is the most important business activity because it links the two basic economic functions of production and consumption. There is difference between Trade and marketing. Trade means simply exchange of goods and this is as old as human civilisation. Trade takes place after production but marketing precedes and pervades production and even follow up trade or exchange.
The definitions of marketing as given by some of the authorities are:
Robert Maxwell defines marketing as the process which links producers and consumers by enabling transactions to take place to the mutual and continuing benefit of both parties.
According to Edward Cundiff and Richard still marketing activities are those mostly concerned with demand stimulating and demand fulfilling efforts of the enterprise. Marketing is concerned with product market interrelationships and transfers of ownership.
According to Philip Kotler, “Marketing Management is the analysis, planning, implementation and control of programmes designed to create, build, maintain mutually beneficial exchanges and relationships with target markets for the purpose of achieving organisational objectives”. Marketing management deals with planning, organising, directing and controlling the activities related to the marketing of goods and services to satisfy the customer’s needs.
Marketing functions may be classified into three general categories containing nine functions in all.
They are:
(a) Merchandising Activities
(b) Physical Distribution Activities
(c) Supporting Activities.
Merchandising begins with an analysis of market needs and the development of products to meet these needs and end with the activities involved in stimulating market demand most directly. Physical distribution makes products available at the places and times desired by final buyers. Supporting activities have the main purpose of improving the effectiveness with which merchandising and physical distribution activities are performed.
(a) Merchandising Functions:
This involves two important aspects.
They are:
(i) Market Research
(ii) Product Planning and Development.
(i) Market Research:
It is the intelligence service of the organisation. According to W.J. Stanton “Marketing research is the systematic search for an analysis of facts related to a marketing problem.” It is a shift from fact finding, information gathering activity to a problem solving and action recommending function.
Marketing research helps in analysing buyer’s habits, relative popularity of a product, effectiveness of advertisement media etc. It provides the marketing manager with timely and accurate information so that better decisions can be made.
(ii) Product Planning and Development:
Product planning and development assumes great importance because all the areas of marketing management are related to the product of the organisation. It is a systematic study of the product design, name, price, uses, colour packing etc.; to develop such products which satisfy the demands of the present as well as the prospective customers.
As the product is the basis of all businessmen marketing efforts, involve a thorough planning of the product. The consumers are of a heterogeneous group and the businessmen must satisfy their requirements. The products should be what the consumers want them to be and what the production manager thinks can and should be produced.
(b) Functions of Exchange:
In this function there are two important sub-divisions.
They are:
(i) Buying and Assembling
(ii) Selling.
(i) Buying and Assembling:
In every organisation buying and assembling are important functions. Raw materials are purchased for further processing by the manufacturing units and finished goods are purchased for re-sale purposes of the trading enterprises. In both the cases the marketing department plays an important role by determining the customer’s requirements and passes on the necessary information to the production and the purchase departments.
By analysing the customer need the marketing department may decide either to buy or to produce a product. In trading organisations marketing department is closely associated with the purchase of products. This leads to systematic purchasing of materials which is influenced by quantity, quality, time, selection of the source of supply, setting the terms and conditions of purchase and placing an order. Assembling involves two aspects.
The first aspect is purchase of raw materials either for manufactured or for assembling a product. Secondly, it involves gathering of products purchased from different manufacturers at some central place for the purpose of re-selling them.
(ii) Selling:
The purpose of all marketing activities is to sell the product of the firm. Selling results in transfer of ownership for a sale consideration. Selling function is facilitated by informing the buyers about the product and making concerted efforts to create demand for its products.
Demand creation can be achieved by advertisement and salesmanship. Selling also involves the choice of channels of distribution. A product may be sold through a network of branches or by executing mail orders or through middlemen, particularly through whole sellers and retailers.
(c) Functions of Physical Treatment:
This again is a broad area and this involves the following.
They are:
(i) Standardisation, granding and branding
(ii) Packaging
(iii) Storage and
(iv) Transportation.
(i) Standardisation, Grading and Branding:
Standardisation means setting up of specialisation a product. Grading is a must for agricultural products. This is attempted as the basis of certain specifications and standards. Industrial goods are given brand names by producers to inform their customers that their goods conform to certain well defined standards.
(ii) Packaging:
Traditionally this is done to protect the goods from damage in transit and facilitate easy transfer of goods. Besides this it is now used by traders to establish his brand products as distinct from those of his rivals. This facilitates the sale of a product. It acts as silent salesmen of the trader where there is self-service, automatic vending and self-selection methods in retail selling.
(iii) Storage:
General goods are to be manufactured in anticipation of demand. When, they are procured much earlier for production. They have to be stored properly in warehouses to protect them from any damage which may be caused by ants, rats, moisture, sun, theft etc. This has become a good companion for Producers, traders, mercantile agents, importers and exporters. Warehousing creates time utility.
(iv) Transportation:
This provides the physical means which facilitate the movement of persons, goods and services from one place to another. Transportation removes the distance problem and creates place utility. Markets nowadays have become international and goods are to be moved within the country and outside.
Transport is needed for moving both finished products and raw materials. The movement of goods must be continuous and smooth. Transport creates time utility of goods and services by speedy movement. Transport also plays a crucial role in price mechanism. It tends to equalize and stabilize the prices of various goods by moving them from places of surplus availability to areas of short supply.
(d) Miscellaneous Functions:
Other name supporting function:
This involves other functions of marketing like:
(i) Salesmanship
(ii) Pricing
(iii) Financing and
(iv) Risk-taking
(i) Salesmanship:
This is also known as personal selling. This is widely used in retail trade. It is the oldest form of selling and is the most recognised and important method of selling. Originally the concept of Buyer Beware concept was used. Now consumer is the king is the concept that is used. The sales personnel focus on the needs of customers. So selling has become a science of human relations and the art of getting along with people with object of reducing resistance to sales.
Advertising:
It is a presentation of ideas, goods or services paid for an identified or identifiable sponsor. It is a non-personal mass communication and has become a potent means of mass education mass selling. Advertising may use any of the several media like newspapers, magazines, catalogues, booklets, radio, Television, calendars, blotters, match’s boxes, and sky writing. The media is to be selected carefully after a careful research.
(ii) Pricing:
It is a dangerous and explosive point and the seller is to be very careful. Price is the exchange value of a product or service expressed in money. Products may be matched with markets but transfer of ownership on products take place only when buyers and sellers agree on it. It is the revenue generating function in marketing. It has been described as the nerve centre of Commercial Process.
Pricing is a problem when an organisation fixes the price of a product, when a firm initiates a change in price, when competition initiates a change in price or in the case of a firm which produces products with interrelated demands. Pricing decisions are influenced by internal factors like organisations marketing objectives, costs and marketing strategy. The external factor which influence price are market conditions, demand and competition.
(iii) Financing:
Traders are concerned with financing. There is always a time lag between the production and realisation of sales. A large amount of capital is required for production and marketing of goods. The service of providing the funds, needed to meet the costs of getting the goods into the hands of the final consumer is commonly referred to as finance function in marketing.
The more familiar sources of finance are the commercial banks, commercial paper houses and finance companies. They mainly provide short term finance. Medium term and long term finance are usually Corporations, Investment Trusts, the State and some other specialized agencies. The finance function becomes very complex in case of foreign trade due to long geographical distances between buyer and seller, different national currencies and the need for granting extended credit.
(iv) Insurance: (Risk Taking):
Insurance is also very important function of marketing. The business is always subjected to certain unexpected risks. The goods may be destroyed by fire, stolen by burglars, damaged by floods or may be rendered un-saleable by a change in demand. Some of these risks must be assumed by the trader himself while others may be taken over by some specialized agencies.
Insurance is a device for granting protection to the traders against some of the business risks. A Contract of Insurance is an agreement by which a person, in consideration of some premium undertaken to indemnify another against a loss which may arise or to pay him a sum of money on the happening of a certain event.
The basis of all kinds of insurance is in cooperation. It is on the principle that those who are more fortunate than the average, shall indirectly pay to those who are less fortune than the average members. Insurance may be against any possible risk. However life, fire and marine are the three most important kinds of Insurance.
Thus a marketing manager plays an important role by performing the various functions of marketing.
Term Paper # 3. Personnel Management:
Edwin Flippo states, “Personnel Management is the planning, organising directing and controlling of the procurement, development compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organisational and societal objectives are accomplished”. This definition focuses on two aspects.
They are:
(a) This comprehensive definition covers both the management functions and the one native functions.
(b) The purpose of all these functions is to assist in the accomplishment of basic objectives.
The personnel manager performs the following functions. They are:
(i) Personnel functions
(ii) Welfare functions
(iii) Clerical functions
(iv) Legal functions.
(i) Personnel Functions:
In this group there are four subdivisions.
The personnel functions are:
(1) Advisory role wherein he advises management on effective use of human resources.
(2) Manpower Planning:
Here the personnel perform Recruitment and selection of employees.
(3) The personnel manager trains the new recruits and helps them to improve their performing potentials.
(4) The personnel manager is to assess the individual’s capabilities and his group behaviour.
(ii) Welfare Functions:
This group consists of the following:
(1) Research in Personnel and organisational problems.
The core of this function includes:
(a) A systematic enquiry into any aspect of the broad question of how to make more effective an organisation’s personnel programmes.
(b) Procedures and policies and findings of the top executives.
(c) Data relating to quality, wages, productivity, grievances/absenteeism, labour turnover, strikes, lock-outs etc.; which are collected and submitted to the top management for the purpose of review, alter or improve.
(d) Morale and attitude surveys.
The second sub-division of welfare functions centre round:
(a) Provision of canteen, grain shops
(b) Provision of transport facilities
(c) Provision of crèches
The third sub-division deals with Group Dynamics which include Counseling, Motivation, Leadership and Communication.
(iii) Clerical Functions:
This function centres round the maintenance of personnel records.
(1) Time-keeping
(2) Remuneration and incentives
(3) Maintenance of records
(4) Human Engineering deals with man-machine relationship.
(iv) Legal Functions:
This function covers the following:
1. Grievance Handling
2. Settlement of disputes.
3. Handling disciplinary action.
4. Collective bargaining.
5. Joint consultation.
Management is a multi-purpose tool.
Its two important functions are:
(a) Managing managers
(b) Managing workers and the work.
Koontz is of the view that management is the “art of getting things done through and with people.” This definition stress that management is personnel administration. It performs manpower planning, it creates the organisation by selection and recruitment remunerates them, communicates and motivates them for performance. Their performance is evaluated and necessary corrective measures may be taken. In short, personnel management performs all functions of management by focussing on human resources of every organisation.
Term Paper # 4. Production Management:
Production means that conversion of raw materials into finished products with the help of certain processes. Its aim is to produce desired goods and services effectively and efficiently. To achieve this aim it is essential to plan, organise, direct and control the production system.
Production management can be classified into two major phases:
(a) Managerial function regarding the design of the production system.
(b) Operation and control of the production system (other name: Production Planning and Control).
Production management has very wide scope and it includes the following functions:
(i) Product Design:
Product design deals with form and function. Product form refers to its shape and appearance and functional design means it’s working. The design of the product is the responsibility of the production manager. Based on his advice the top management decides that to be produced by the firm.
(ii) Design of Production System:
Production system is the framework within which the conversion of inputs into output occurs. There are three basic kinds of production system, namely, process production, job production and intermittent production.
In choosing the production system the two factors to be considered are:
(a) The type of the product to be produced and
(b) The scale of production carried on by the firm.
(1) Production Planning and Control:
This deals with the determination and regulation of production processes. The production manager is concerned with production planning after he designs the production system and activates it. In production planning the production manager establishes the sequence of operations of each item and each operation. Production planning is followed by Production Control. In production control actual performance is compared with pre-determined standards.
Production control is applied in three important areas.
They are:
(i) Control of inventories
(ii) Control of flow of raw-materials and
(iii) Control of work-in process.
(2) Plant Location:
Location of a plant should be in such a place where production and distribution costs are the minimum.
The fundamental factors which influence location are:
(a) Proximity to raw materials
(b) Availability of labour
(c) Availability of power
(d) Availability of Transport
(e) Availability of banking facilities
(f) Proximity to market
(g) Government Support
(h) Personal factors
(3) Plant Layout:
Plant layout means arrangement of machines and facilities. This should be efficient to economy and efficiency in operations. The type of layout depends mainly on the type of production system adopted by the production department. A good layout is to ensure free flow of materials.
(4) Research and Development:
Research means critical investigation in order to acquire new knowledge. This is applied in industrial units for solving their problems to arrive at immediate solution. Development follows research and this involves design and fabrication of a new product and testing their usefulness keeping in mind the needs of customers.